Huguenots in the South of Ireland

Other colonies of the refugees were established in the south of Ireland, where they carried on various branches of manufacture. A branch of the linen trade was, through the instrumentality of the Marquis of Ormonde, established at Kilkenny, under the superintendence of William Crommelin a brother of Louis. At Limerick they established the lace and glove trades. At Bandon they had a cloth manufacture, the names of the colonists indicating a mixture of Walloon and Huguenot families: those of Garrett, De Ruyter, and Minhear being Flemish, while those of Beaumont, Willis, and Baxter are French, from the banks of the Loire. At Cork, James Fontaine began the manufacture of woollen cloth; and others of the refugees, that of ginghams and other fabrics.

In the Act passed by the Irish Parliament in 1662, and re-enacted in 1672, “for encouraging Protestant strangers and others to inhabit Ireland,” Waterford is specially named as one of the cities selected for the settlement of the refugees.

In 1697, about fifty retired officers, who had served in the Army of William III., settled with their families at Youghal, where names of French origin are still common in the town.

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